Dingzhou Li-9news News Reader Web App

At Design Interviews

Interview with Dingzhou Li : Frank Scott: What is the main principle, idea and inspiration behind your design?. Dingzhou Li : I would like to connect geometrical shapes with emotional element. I believe every single shape could represent something which is much more than what it looks like. How to get people&#039;s reading preference with a innovative way, that is what I want to prob for this project. .Frank Scott: What has been your main focus in designing this work? Especially what did you want to achieve?. Dingzhou Li : Typography and consistency. For 9News, a easy-to-use web app with excellent readability and high performance is what I especially want to achieve throughout the project. The black square shapes as seen in the logo is a key element for the whole app. .Frank Scott: What are your future plans for this award winning design?. Dingzhou Li : 9News is my degree project for my bachelor degree of computer graphic design at University of Waikato in 2014. As a degree project, I think it meets my expectation well, and express my idea and understanding of design in ingenious way. .Frank Scott: How long did it take you to design this particular concept?. Dingzhou Li : I spent about 3 month on this project. About 1 month on ideation, research and visual design, and the rest time for development and revise. .Frank Scott: Why did you design this particular concept? Was this design commissioned or did you decide to pursuit an inspiration?. Dingzhou Li : 9News is my degree project as I said. When I was a university student, I believe university is the most valuable place for a young designer to explore the digital world. 9News is a conceptual design, and I believe it made it. .Frank Scott: Is your design being produced or used by another company, or do you plan to sell or lease the production rights or do you intent to produce your work yourself?. Dingzhou Li : The design is being developed by myself. However, as a conceptual design, the function for this web app is quite simple and subjective, and I intent to produce it for myself. .Frank Scott: Who is the target customer for his design?. Dingzhou Li : The target audience is young people, especially for 18-26 male, because they are rational, creative and interested in trendy news. They also have more curiosity to novelty apps like 9News. .Frank Scott: How did you come up with the name for this design? What does it mean?. Dingzhou Li : The name of 9News is quite concise and easy to be understood: 1 news for 9 different categories each day. .Frank Scott: Which design tools did you use when you were working on this project?. Dingzhou Li : Adobe creative suits, including Photoshop and Illustrator. For front end development part, I used Sublime Text for the most time. .Frank Scott: What is the most unique aspect of your design?. Dingzhou Li : How to build the connection with shapes and emotion in a visual way, that is what the most unique aspect of my design. .Frank Scott: Who did you collaborate with for this design? Did you work with people with technical / specialized skills?. Dingzhou Li : I really appreciate Tomás García Ferrari, who was my supervisor throughout this degree project. He gave me some great suggestions about choosing font and improving usability. .Frank Scott: What is the role of technology in this particular design?. Dingzhou Li : As a responsive web app, HTML5, CSS3 and jQuery should be the framework of this project. I utilised SVG for the animation part. .